The Sins of Others

There is a scene in Calvary that has stayed with me. Brendan Gleeson, who plays a Catholic priest by the mane of Father James, is talking on the phone to Kelly Reilly, who plays his daughter, one he had before he took his vows and after his much beloved wife died. She is sitting on a terrace of a very modern building, in a steel and glass modern European city. He is on a pay phone outdoors, back in small town Sligo; behind him stands an ancient stone tower in ruins.  In the forefront is this priest in black cassock, surrounded by grass so green and a sky so blue they feel fresh and new, yet there he is with the remains of a period in time which is disappearing piece by piece, much like the Church and the values for which Father James stands. I’m not sure if John Michael McDonagh, the director of Calvary, meant this scene to be a representation of much that is conveyed by the film, but it came to me as a strong one.

Calvary is the type of movie which speaks volumes, both literally and figuratively, for much of the movie is made up of scenes in which two people are talking, one of them Father James, but it is also a movie about the things unsaid, the messages conveyed by the story and its symbolism. The movie starts in a confessional, where Father James hears of the monstrosity that befell one of his parishioners as a boy at the hands of a pedophile priest that has passed away without punishment in this world. This unknown voice lets Father James know that he is going to kill him the coming Sunday to atone for the sins of the bad priest, even though he is innocent and a good one. The movie then plays a little like a murder-to-be mystery and a lot like a reflection on our new world and its dwindling faith and values. And despite what I have described so far, it does so with humor, as well as with despair.

Gleeson and Reilly

Over the week we are introduced to the particular wretchedness of some of the people that inhabit this small, seemingly overlooked town in Ireland: the bar keep, the butcher and his wife, a mechanic who is an African immigrant, the inspector, a male prostitute, the doctor, the wealthy landlord, all of them people Father James is trying, unsuccessfully, to reach or help; most of them also his potential murderer. There are a few that believe and care for him, most particularly his emotionally damaged daughter who has herself felt, at one time, abandoned by him and his vocation. But he mostly faces his antagonists alone, kept together by his faith.

Brendan Gleeson and Chris O'Dowd

Father James is focused on the recovery or redemption of these, his ever more violent adversaries, rather than on his impending demise; something that is getting harder to find in a person in these our self-absorbed times: someone who cares more about others than himself, someone that still believes in sacrifice for his fellow man or woman. And this he certainly seems to be: a sacrificial lamb, another innocent to die for the sins of others. The film does not hide the parallels or symbolism in this sense either. He is met with temptation, at the hands of the wealthy stock broker, he faces his impending death with fear and has his moment of doubt, at night, alone. The symbolism is there: we know He who faced His Calvary before Father James faced his.

This is the second feature length film directed by McDonagh, the first one being The Guard (2011). Both of his films star Brendan Gleeson and there couldn’t have been a better choice of an actor. Gleeson carries the film and he is, without a doubt, astounding in his portrayal of Father James. He is able to convey the complexity of feelings in this priest and very much overshadows the other actors in the film, which may be one of the films only flaws. Their characters come off as stereotypes; very one-dimensional to how rounded out Father James is.

But all is forgiven because of the smoothness of the direction, the beauty of the photography (and Ireland!), the strength of Gleeson’s acting and the messages contained in the film. The final scene in the movie, also between two actors, is wordless. And yet, it is the silence, now, that speaks volumes.